Optical transceivers send and receive data in an optical form over an optical link, such as a fiber-optic link. An optical transmitter can include laser driver circuitry to drive a diode, such as a light-emitting diode (LED), to create optical pulses on the fiber-optic link from received electronic signals. An optical receiver can include a photosensitive diode to receive optical signals, which are then converted into electronic signals. Thus, an optical transceiver converts (i) optical signals into analog and/or digital electronic signals and (ii) electronic signals into optical signals.
In order to determine if the optical transceiver is functioning correctly, various operational parameters are monitored. In conventional approaches, these monitored parameters are stored on the optical transceiver in a memory-mapped fashion. In this case, a host processor or circuit board transmits a memory address to the transceiver in order to access a monitored parameter stored at that memory address in the transceiver. However, this approach limits transceiver usage for other purposes by statically allocating certain memory portions strictly for such parameter storage.